Calcium

[SSalty]

I just started dosing my tank with calcium. I am using the Kent Marine Tech Part A and B. I bought a calcium test kit, and I don't know if I am making harder that it is, but it seems confusing to me. It says by the amount of drops of test liquid that I add tells me how much calcium I have in my tank but first the color will change from pink to blue than once it hits purple than thats where I stop adding. A lot different than just adding then matching the colors like the other test kits . Does anyone else have this type of calcium kit? Basically I don't know much about the calcium but I do know it is a crucial part when it comes to coraline and the health of inverts. Any other insight regarding calcium that you may have is appreciated.

[VAreef]

Thats a pretty normal type of test kit for calcium. It can be a bit confusing and time consuming of a test at first though. When it changes to blue that is when you are getting close to your calcium level and when it changes to purple is when you have reached your calcium level. Just make sure to shake up the test tube after each drop and count the number of drops added to reach your color changes. There should be a chart in your test kit that shows what the calcium level is for how many drops you added to get the purple color. To make sure it's accurate try to always hold your test bottles completely vertical when adding drops so the drops are all the same size. Make sure to start out as close as possible to the 5ml line in the test tube with your water. After adding the initial test solution from bottle #1 make sure it is mixed really well.

Calcium of 400-500 is the recommended level. I've noticed a lot of people tend to keep theirs 400-450 though. Corraline, SPS corals, LPS corals, crabs, shrimps, and phosphates will use up your calcium. I'm sure other stuff uses it as well but I think those are the main things. Keeping phosphates low will allow more calcium to be used by the things you want using it. When I got my calcium level up to 420 the corraline growth noticably increased.

I hope this helps some and doesn't overly complicate it for you.

[yote]

VA pretty much hit the nail on the head.All the calcium kits ive tryed are the same way.However there are a couple that you count the drops and then multiply.
Dont forget to keep an eye on you alkalinty too.Calcium and alk. work together to balance you PH, and your corals use the carbonate hardness to help build there skeletons.Try to keep your alk between 8 and 12 DKH.

[Adrastos]

All I test is DKH and CA. They work hand in hand and compliment eachother (a higher DKH will result in a lower CA and vice-versa). A well balanced tank will have appropriate PH levels as well.

The testing kits that titrate are much more accurate then the older style (cheaper) tests that just match up colors to a card. It just takes a few times to get used to them.

[Bifferwine]

And remember that test kits can sometimes be wrong, so if in doubt it doesn't hurt to have a backup test kit of a different brand.

[SSalty]

VA, you cleared up my confusion nicely. Thanks.